20011/12 Southern Cruise to Antarctica

7000 miles, crossing 72 degrees, of latitude from 15 November 2011 to 16 April 2012

Our southern cruise to Antarctica was, without a shadow of doubt, the Great Adventure of my lifetime. It took four years of planning and preparation and lasted five months. Starting in Maria’s home city of Buenos Aires in Argentina we fought our way down the South Atlantic, enduring a hurricane force storm, to the Falkland Islands. After cruising round the islands for three weeks we made our way via Staten Island to the Beagle Channel and Ushuaia which was the jumping off point for our cruise to Antarctica in January 2012. After crossing the 500 miles wide Drake Passage from Cape Horn to Antarctica – the roughest and windiest stretch of water in the world – we sailed round the Antarctic Peninsula for just over two weeks. We were the first British yacht crewed by amateurs to visit Antarctica in six years and, whilst there, we presented on behalf of the Royal Cruising Club a tribute to Lawrence Oates on the centenary of his death to the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust. Returning to the Beagle Channel we then enjoyed for two months what must be the most sensational cruising ground in the world, the Chilean fjords of Tierra Del Fuego, before making our way back up the South Atlantic to Brazil where Mina2 overwintered in the Bay of Ilha Grande. We covered 7,000 miles crossing 72 degrees of latitude in water temperatures ranging from +30C to -2C.